Dozens of websites and organizations sift through those documents to provide ratings. However, the web sites have different sets of standards, which sometimes confuses potential donors.

The Idea Village, a nonprofit founded in 2000, has stellar ratings on some sites, and rotten ratings on others. It depended on what documents the rating organizations chose to look at.

Organization often look at administrative expenses as a way to judge the nonprofits, but many nonprofits disagree with that as a method. Administrative expenses cover whatever it takes to run a charity, and the numbers can shift dramatically as charities grow and shrink.

Instead of looking at ratings, donors can see the information directly for themselves by obtaining IRS 990 forms. Nonprofits are required to disclose spending on the forms on a yearly basis. If requested, an organization must provide copies of the three most recent 990 forms via email, mail or fax.

Below are some of the websites that rate and compile information about nonprofits.

A Justice Department civil rights investigation has concluded that the Ferguson Police Department and the city's municipal court engaged in a "pattern and practice" of discrimination against African-Americans, targeting them disproportionately for tr...